Nick Spencer and Ryan Ottley Taking Over Amazing Spider-Man
 

Controversial Marvel scribe Nick Spencer (Secret Empire, Ant-Man, Superior Foes of Spider-Man) and Ryan Ottley of Invincible are the new creative team on Amazing Spider-Man. Alien invasions, familiar favourites, secrets from the past and more



http://comicbook.com/marvel/2018/02/...r-ryan-ottley/

After Nazi Cap, I'm sceptical of anything Spencer

So we got the people who worked on Invincible and Superior Foes, this should be very interesting.

I just found this on CBR and I am confused. Didn't Amazing Spider-Man just go back to its actual numbering instead of launching a new volume of twenty or so issue twice since 2012 not even counting Superior? So at #800 it goes back to #1 again for like the 4th time? Why does Marvel like crapping on its number system and giving all Spider-Man collectors a major headache? Keep the numbers going!

The Legacy branding was an initative started by Axel Alonzo, and he's no longer in charge, the new EIC C.B Cebulski is behind the relaunches.

ASM's current volume will end with Issue 801, which is Dan Slott's last issue

I thought the latest company-wide retooling was more of a legacy then the last one just continuity centered. Like how The Champions group was nothing, but replacement characters for example. I dropped ASM several issues in after Superior ended. I couldn't find it interesting at all. This is the third playing around with numbers since 2014.

I didn't know there was another change at the top. I just wish issue numbers would be left alone for collectors sake, it makes it much for difficult. Blah!

So we've reached the 49th/850th issue mark of this run, figured it was time for a catch up

Anyone have a scooby doo where are clues as to who Kindred is?

Joyce Delaney?

Judas Traveller?

Honestly this has dragged on for too long. I remember reading a fan theory of his identity ages ago which wasn't the usual Harry, Gwen, pre-BND Peter and a detailed explanation of why it had to be them. I remember nodding my head saying yes to all of that...it was so long ago that not only do I not remember who it was but can't remember any of the reasons either.

What makes the wait pointless and frustrating is Spencer has said his identity is easy to guess and that's not even the real hook of his character, it's his method and motivation that's the mystery.

And now Ottley has quit Amazing Spider-Man

https://twitter.com/RyanOttley/statu...11596321148929

One of the earliest guesses about Kindred turns out to be the correct one

https://comicsheatingup.net/2020/10/...d-revealed/10/

On the one hand making it Harry is very underwhelming I'm glad that it wasn't any of the more 'out there' ideas that it was Gwen or the soul of pre-OMD Peter.

Still interested in how this 'cleansing' plays out although it does seem since the Thunderbolts series he starred in Norman doesn't stay the standard Green Goblin for long. There is always some twist or alternate identity.

January's cover appear to show Norman colluding with Kingpin, looking fairly twisted/evil looking so the cleansed angle may only last as long as this storyline.

Here's a rare interview with Spencer on how Harry fits with all this, and what's to come

https://www.cbr.com/nick-spencer-ama...ins-interview/

Thoughts on this week's ASM


Peter and Strange attempt to fend off the Kindred-possessed Cindy, who demands Peter confess to something. Peter agrees to meet with Kindred, and Cindy departs. Peter and Strange talk, Strange suggests he access the web of life and destiny through the astral plane and gives Peter the Hand of Vishanti...but Strange finds something wrong with it...he asks Peter if he's made any 'arrangements' in regards to something, but believes that to be 'impossible', he tells Peter he will work on liberating his friends without his assistance and casts him out of the sanctum.

However, it's then revealed Peter went to Felicia to ask for help in appropriating the Hand of Vishanti in case Strange proved to be difficult, and Felicia makes good on her own arrangement, stealing the hand and giving it to Peter. Peter uses it to travel to the astral plane but finds himself in a dimension focused entirely on him, with Uncle Ben, Aunt May, and even Morlun plastered on billboards. it's a dimension Peter has visited before with Doctor Strange.

A familiar voice calls him 'tiger', Peter turns to find an illusion of Mary Jane, who tells him that everything's ok and the answer is 'yes'....can this be pre-OMD MJ? Kindred invades the dreams and attacks Peter, and he wakes up in Kindred's graveyard lair, where he has finished setting up a dinner table filled with the skeletal remains of Peter's lost ones.

I like to think Felicia always answers her doorbell in full costume. That was rather silly, but it's one of the few bright bursts of light hearted comedy in the actual issue.

In any other sort of event, this is a short, lean issue light on any real incident between Peter and Kindred, if you're experience with the ASM title is a bit more recent, you'd be more in it for the Felicia moments and Peter finally making it to Kindred's front door...the rest of the comic is for your dad or uncle, or anyone who lived life to the fullest in the years 2001 through to 2007, when J.Micheal Strazynski held court over Amazing Spider-Man, advancing him in ways rarely touched on in many years since (and even in the case of Parker Industries, handled with all the delicacies of a Peppa Pig pitch meeting)

Packed with callbacks, items and places from prior JMS issues, and a potential cameo from the "last remains" perhaps of the old reality's Mary Jane, this issue sees the acknowledgment of otherworldly arrangements which provokes Strange into cutting Peter out of their own joint rescue mission, a flavour perhaps of the greater rejection to come for Peter by the hero community should the rest of the arrangement come to full public light?

And then there is the answer...the simple answer...yes. Yes was the answer to that arrangement, spoken from the lips of the spider-bride. Have to admit, I really did think they were going to pull a double-turn and reveal MJ was working for Kindred or that she was Kindred herself when those centipedes appeared. And Kindred does say "we" an awful lot when Peter arrives at his graveside lair...he could be referring to the company he's keeping, but you never know.

Nevertheless, we are getting closer to answers, and, for Peter, the start of a short and rocky road to realisation, and perhaps a longer one to redemption. Stay tuned.

A lot of important stuff happens in ASM#52.LR, not so much ASM#52

We see more of the fall out of the Order of the Web recovering from their demonic possession, Mary Jane meets with Doctor Kafka, who verifies Norman's assurances he's sane, and listens to his pleas to help Harry. Harry over in ASM#52 beats Peter up, strikes a deal with him to remove the sins from the other Spider-Heroes, and then snaps his neck

MJ brings up that Harry has done everything to escape the shadow of his father, and has been seemingly 'fine' for a while

There also appears to be a demonically possessed version of Mary Jane stalking Doctor Strange and the others when they visit the Astral Plane

Peter dreams about the dinner party he attended for Harry's comeback at the end of One More Day. Peter gets emotional when he sees Flash. He's introduced, as in the original story, to Lilly Hollister and Carlie Cooper, but this time Peter actually notices Mary Jane is at the party and ignores the pair of them. He tries to go after MJ before she can leave but Harry appears before him. Peter recalls what was said between them that day..."Speak of the Devil and he appears"

Back in the real world, Kindred revives Peter from the dead, and peels his own face off...Kindred finally stands revealed to Peter as Harry Osborn, and he utters his famous 1990s catchphrase...GOTCHA

My thoughts:

Amazing Spider-Man fills up a lot of pages with meta-commentary in the teases and some semblance of pay off at last as Harry unmasks...looks like the Kindred get up might not be entirely mystical, perhaps that's why he needed Mysterio. Still so little we know, but hopefully we're approaching the final stages of this arc and we'll get answers. In the meantime, we have some fabulous bundles of Bagley art and Peter prioritising amends with MJ over being introduced to her failed successors.

It's so good to see what many suspected about the post-devil deal epilogue fully realised. Harry as the bizzare chess master of the dopiest Spider-Man plots puts him right up there with Norman on the rictor scale. Anytime there's convoluted bizzaroland antics from editorial, just pin it on a Goblin. I look forward to the next migrane, next time use Kingsley!

Bagley seems to have trouble distinguishing Harry from Norman, which makes me think the Osborn we saw with Wilson Fisk in the January covers is meant to be Harry after all.

Spider-Man's new outfit for 2021


https://www.gamesradar.com/new-spide...led-by-marvel/

I'm unsure how to feel about it. Maybe it'll grow on me.

Why is Spencer's run lauded by fans as a 'back to basics' approach again?

Besides the fact the first trade in his run is called 'Back To Basics?':P

But yeah, the run so far seems to be Spencer saying "Imagine it's 2008...only Peter and MJ never broke up", he's used everything utilised in the last decade plus or so of the comic, mostly aiming to 'fix' what some readers found problematic with them.

Where as Dan Slott would often try to set records with the amount of new Spider-Man outfits he'd introduce, usually at the expense of a coherant story. Spencer appears to have a fairly confident opinion of himself that he now feels he can introduce a new Slott-style costume and have the ability to tell a superior story with it.